History of the Electric Guitar

Various experiments at electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument date back to the early part of the twentieth century. Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters adapted and placed inside violins and banjos to amplify the sound. Hobbyists in the 1920s used carbon button microphones attached to the bridge, however these detected vibration from the bridge on top of the instrument, resulting in a weak signal. With numerous people experimenting with electrical instruments in the 1920s and early 1930s, there are many claimants to have been the first to invent an electric guitar.

Electric guitars were originally designed by guitar makers and instrument manufacturers. Guitar innovator Les Paul experimented with microphones attached to guitars. Some of the earliest electric guitars adapted hollow bodied acoustic instruments and used tungsten pickups. The first electrically amplified guitar was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, General Manager at National Guitar Corporation with Paul Barth who was Vice President. The maple body prototype for the one piece cast aluminum "Frying Pan" was built by Harry Watson, factory superintendent of National Guitar Corporation. Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Electro-Patent-Instrument Company Los Angeles), a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker, and Paul Barth. By 1934 the company was renamed Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company.

The need for the amplified guitar became apparent during the big band era as orchestras increased in size, particularly when guitars had to compete with large brass sections. The first electric guitars used in jazz were hollow archtop acoustic guitar bodies with electromagnetic transducers. By 1932 an electrically amplified guitar was commercially available. Early electric guitar manufacturers include: Rickenbacker (first called Ro-Pat-In) in 1932, Dobro in 1933, National, AudioVox and Volu-tone in 1934,Vega, Epiphone (Electrophone and Electar), and Gibson in 1935 and many others by 1936.

References : 

• Broadbent, Peter (1997). Charlie Christian: Solo Flight – The Seminal Electric Guitarist. Ashley Mark Publishing Company. ISBN 1-872639-56-9.
• Evans, Tom (1977). Guitars: Music, history, construction and players from the Renaissance to Rock. Paddington Press. ISBN 044822240X.
• Govenar, Alan B.; Jay F. Brakefield (1998). Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds of Dallas Converged. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1-57441-051-2.
• Millard, André, (ed.) (2004). The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-7862-4.
• Wheeler, Tom (1978). The Guitar Book: A Handbook for Electric & Acoustic Guitarists. Harpercollins. ISBN 006014579X.
• Wheelwright, Lynn; Carter, Walter (28 April 2010). "Ro-Pat-In Electric Spanish". Vintage Guitar. Retrieved 8 August 2010.